“General! The First Consul has rewarded the brave Polish Legions that have shed so much blood for France… by sending them to Saint-Domingue; but here too, fighting a savage, barbarous nation, the Poles have demonstrated to ungrateful France that they fulfill their duties. We are surrounded by 3,000 Negroes. Unable to hold them off and not wanting to fall into the hands of savages who are fighting for their independence, I take my life.”
From a letter sent by Battalion Chief Jasinski to General Philibert Fressinet, 1803.
“This is likely my last letter. Only 300 men from the Third Brigade remain […] The others are dead, among them your brother, whose destiny was to die a few months after arriving. I cannot forgive myself the naïvety and stupidity that drove me to seek my fortune in America. I do not wish such a fate on my worst enemy. It is better to beg for bread in Europe than to seek one’s fortune here, amidst a thousand diseases […] and the blacks, who commit the greatest atrocities against their prisoners. Night and day, I dream of returning to Europe […] I am begging you, for God’s sake, do not let [my brother] Teodor follow me, because both of us will end our lives here.”
From a letter sent by Józef Zador to a friend at home, 1803.
Translated from Polish by Boris Dralyuk